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The customer decision making process is changing; Forrester Research's Forum showed marketers some of the ways how.

Last week I participated in Forrester’s Forum for Marketing Leaders with the theme “Create Brand Advantage with Perpetually Connected Customers.” The bulk of the presentations from Forrester analysts and marketing executives dealt with how customer decision-making has changed and how marketers should be responding to those changes. Here are my six favorite lessons from the event in case you weren’t there.

1. The Mobile Mind Shift: Analyst Josh Bernoff unveiled new research on the importance of smartphones in the daily lives and the decision journeys of today’s customers. The key insight was “the expectation that any desired information or service is available, on any appropriate device, in context, at a person’s moment of need.” Five segments of people were presented based on how actively they use mobile devices: dabblers, roamers, adapters, immersers and perpetuals. The last three segments represent only 22% of U.S. online consumers today but can be a more significant share of some companies’ business: 45% in the case of E*Trade. Lesson: Expectations of smartphone users are increasing faster than most brands’ responses to those expectations.

2. “Don’t crush the butterfly”: Capital One CMO Peter Horst shared how the company incorporated its acquisition of ING Direct into the business and rebranded the unit as Capital One 360. ING Direct had a passionate customer base of savers who did not like big banks and preferred the ING Direct approach of online account management, cafes instead of branches and accessibility instead of attitudes. Knowing that Capital One had things it could learn from ING Direct — and had the potential to ruin what made the online bank beloved by its customers — Capital One’s CEO issued the mandate “don’t crush the butterfly!” (the brand symbol of ING Direct). Lesson: Acquires should be humble enough and astute enough to take time to listen to, learn from and constantly communicate with the acquired company’s customers.

3. “Don’t be creepy, be helpful”: Analyst Sarah Rotman Epps presented insight into the impact of wearable devices on collecting data and creating better user experiences. Three relevant case studies were presented: Purell’s linkage of how RFID tags on hospital workers’ badges and on hand sanitizer dispensers increased hand washing and decrease the spread of germs; Disney’s use of smart wrist bands that streamlined access to desired theme park attractions and simplified payments for products; Progressive’s use of the Snapshot device to track selective driving behaviors that can lead to lower insurance rates for safe drivers. There’s a wealth of data to be collected with these new devices, but that requires restraint on the part of marketers. Lesson: Don’t be creepy, be helpful.

4. “Fail early”: 3M’s VP of Global Transformation Raj Rao shared how his company has developed a culture of innovation that has led to the company being the #3 most respected brand behind Apple and Google. He believes that in the new digital ecosystem, brands must be continuous, open and collaborative. He also acknowledged that innovation requires experimentation and that not all experiments succeed. “Failure” must be accepted and learned from, and it must be done early in the process. The time to fail is not in front of customers with finished products. Lesson: Build a culture that encourages experimentation early and rigorous quality assurance later.

5. ADAPT: Analyst Sheryl Pattek shared her experiences as a marketing change agent at Ryder, where she was recently the CMO. She believes marketers have five bad habits they must break: complacency, conformity, analysis paralysis, customer detachment, silos of knowledge. To overcome those problems marketers must ADAPT: Accept change (be flexible), Dare the status quo (have courage), Act continuously (with speed), Participate personally (take ownership), Tear down boundaries (collaborate). Her advice is consistent with the findings I incorporated in my book, The CMO Manifesto. Lesson: Successful marketers must disdain the status quo and be agents of change.

6. RaDaR: Analyst Nate Elliott unveiled a new framework during the last presentation of the event. Through his research on the customer decision journey he advocates that marketers should begin planning their activities around a three-stage model: Reach and Depth and Relationship (RaDaR). To help customers discover new products, marketers should reach them through media optimized for that purpose such as television and online display. As customers explore and buy, deep content on platforms such as brand websites, should be in place. Finally, as customers engage with the product and the brand post-purchase, relationship channels of communications such as email and Facebook should be used. He also advocated that organizing around paid, owned and earned channels may be convenient for marketers but inhibits engaging with customers holistically through their journeys. Lesson: Plan marketing activities around the customer journey, not the organization’s silos.

If you were at the forum, please share your additional insights in the comments below.